IV 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 227 

Condemning the murder of Boris Nemtsov, offering condolences to his family, 

friends, and colleagues, expressing solidarity with the people of Russia, 

and calling for an international investigation into this crime. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 29, 2015 

Mr. ENGEL (for himself and Mr. SMITH of New Jersey) submitted the 

following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Condemning the murder of Boris Nemtsov, offering condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues, expressing 

solidarity with the people of Russia, and calling for an 

international investigation into this crime. 

Whereas, on February 27, 2015, Boris Nemtsov was shot 

multiple times by unknown assailants while walking 

across the Great Moskvoretsky Bridge in the shadow of 

Moscow’s St. Basil’s Cathedral and in full view of the 

Kremlin’s walls and security cameras; 

Whereas following the demise of the Soviet Union, Boris 

Nemtsov led a distinguished political career which included serving as Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, a legislator in both chambers of Russia’s Federal 


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•HRES 227 IH 

Assembly, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, and a 

prominent leader of Russia’s democratic opposition; 

Whereas since his accession to power in 1999, Vladimir Putin 

has systematically dismantled the democratic reforms of 

the 1990s, weakened governing institutions such as the 

Federal Assembly, established political control over investigatory and judicial organs, increasingly restricted independent media, repressed civil society organizations, and 

consolidated a corrupt and authoritarian ruling regime; 

Whereas Boris Nemtsov was a fearless, vocal, and high-profile critic of the increasing repression and corruption that 

has characterized Vladimir Putin’s rule; 

Whereas Vladimir Putin has publicly used the terms ‘‘National Traitors’’ and ‘‘Fifth Column’’ to describe Boris 

Nemtsov and other critics and has referred to Russia’s 

human rights activists and civil society leaders as ‘‘jackals’’ and ‘‘Judases’’ controlled by foreign powers; 

Whereas Boris Nemtsov had produced authoritative reports 

on high-level official corruption, including in the natural 

resources sector and the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics 

and was reportedly planning to release a new report on 

the presence of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine; 

Whereas, on March 23, 2009, while running for mayor in 

Sochi, Boris Nemtsov was attacked by unknown assailants who threw ammonia in his face; 

Whereas in November 2010, Boris Nemtsov was attacked in 

Moscow’s international airport by members of a Kremlincontrolled youth group following his return from speaking 

at a commemoration in the United States Capitol of the 

death of Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky at 

which he urged imposing targeted sanctions on highVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 Apr 30, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR227.IH HR227

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•HRES 227 IH 

ranking Kremlin officials for their complicity in largescale corruption and human rights violations; 

Whereas in January 2011, Boris Nemtsov was jailed for taking part in a peaceful anti-Kremlin protest; 

Whereas in 2011 and 2012, Boris Nemtsov helped lead national protests against Vladimir Putin’s regime that resulted in the largest anti-government demonstrations 

since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991; 

Whereas, on June 13, 2013, Boris Nemtsov testified before 

a public hearing of the Committee on Foreign Relations 

of the United States Senate calling the Sergei Magnitsky 

Rule of Law Accountability Act ‘‘the most pro-Russian 

law in the history of any foreign parliament . . . if the 

U.S. wants to show solidarity with the Russian people, 

the best way to do it is to implement the Magnitsky Act’’; 

Whereas Boris Nemtsov, even hours before his assassination, 

was planning a public protest against Putin’s regime for 

March 1, 2015; 

Whereas Putin has announced that he will personally take 

control of Russia’s official investigation into Nemtsov’s 

murder; 

Whereas the reaction of government-controlled media to 

Boris Nemtsov’s assassination has been to defame the 

victim and advance bizarre and offensive conspiracies, including that the United States may have been behind the 

murder; 

Whereas Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has publicly 

stated that Boris Nemtsov’s assassination was an antiKremlin provocation thereby sending a clear signal to investigatory authorities; 


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•HRES 227 IH 

Whereas the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office stated that the investigation was pursuing 

several possible motives, including ‘‘a provocation to destabilize the political situation in the country, where the 

figure of Nemtsov could have become a sort of sacrificial 

victim for those who stop at nothing to achieve their political goals’’, as well as an assassination by ‘‘radical personalities’’ from Ukraine or Islamic extremists, among 

other highly implausible scenarios; 

Whereas in June 2012, Alexander Bastrykin, the head of 

Russia’s Investigative Committee drove Sergei Sokolov, a 

Russian journalist for Novaya Gazeta, the independent 

outlet that employed Anna Politkovskya and three other 

murdered journalists to a forest near Moscow where he 

threatened to behead, dismember, and then ‘‘investigate’’ 

his own murder of Sergei Sokolov; 

Whereas Boris Nemtsov publically advocated imposing 

Magnitsky Act sanctions on Alexander Bastrykin for his 

complicity in the cover up of Sergei Magnitsky’s false arrest, torture, and murder and for other violations of 

human rights; 

Whereas based on their past record, Russia’s authorities will 

not conduct an independent, credible, and public investigation into the circumstances leading to the murder of 

Boris Nemtsov; 

Whereas the United Nations has established guidelines for 

the establishment of Commissions of Inquiry to investigate extra-legal, arbitrary, and summary executions; 

Whereas Russia is a participating state of the Organization 

for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and is 


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bound by its commitments to democratic norms and fundamental freedoms; 

Whereas the Moscow Mechanism of OSCE provides the option of sending missions of experts to assist participating 

States in resolving particular questions or problems related to human rights in their investigations; 

Whereas OSCE’s 1991 Moscow Document declared that the 

‘‘commitments undertaken in the field of the human dimension . . . are matters of direct and legitimate concern to all participating States and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the State concerned’’; and 

Whereas, on March 1, 2015, tens of thousands gathered in 

the streets of Moscow, in the largest public demonstration since those Nemtsov helped organize in 2011 and 

2012, in order to mourn his death, exercising their right 

of free speech and peaceful assembly that he promoted 

and defended, and to call for justice following his murder: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) condemns the brutal and cowardly murder 

3 of Boris Nemtsov and the climate of fear, hatred, 

4 and impunity that surrounds this and other political 

5 murders in Russia; 

6 (2) offers condolences to the family, friends, 

7 and colleagues of Boris Nemstov as they mourn his 

8 death; 

9 (3) expresses solidarity with the people of Rus10 sia who are struggling against great odds to build a 

11 freer, more just, and prosperous future; 


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•HRES 227 IH 

1 (4) reaffirms the United States commitment to 

2 continue to support Russia’s democratic opposition; 

3 (5) calls on the President to make greater use 

4 of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability 

5 Act; 

6 (6) calls on the participating States of the Or7 ganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe 

8 to invoke the Moscow Mechanism and conduct an 

9 international investigation into the circumstances 

10 that led to Boris Nemtsov’s murder; and 

11 (7) calls on the Government of Russia to estab12 lish a Commission of Inquiry consistent with United 

13 Nations guidelines and to cooperate fully with any 

14 international investigation or assessment of Boris 

15 Nemstov’s murder. 

Æ 


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